As a gritty prequel set in the Batman universe, Fox’s Gotham was bound to get a lot of attention no matter what. The question was whether the freshman drama would actually live up to all that hype.

Happily, the word so far is that it does. The Gotham pilot was screened over the weekend for a handful of critics and journalists, and so far the reactions are quite positive. Hit the jump to get the early buzz on Gotham.

First, a brief explanation: Created by Bruno Heller (Rome, The Mentalist), Gotham follows the early career of Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie). He crosses paths with several citizens who will eventually go on to become DC notables, like Batman (David Mazouz), Catwoman (Camren Bicondova), the Penguin (Robin Taylor), and the Riddler (Cory Michael Smith).

And now, on to the reactions:

Really dug the pilot of Fox's superhero origin story Gotham. Solid crime drama with many tantalizing hints of the mythology to come.

This Gotham is grimy and violent, and clearly on its way to being overrun by a criminal element that will quickly be sending it on a downward spiral. It feels much more like the real world heightened than it does a comic book world. […]

Robin Lord Taylor is a true stand-out as Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin. He is a low-level psychopath for Fish Mooney, but has a definite lust for power that will surely come into play as the character develops. His performance is just so good that people won’t be able to not talk about it.

By far the best thing about the pilot is Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepott, the man who will later become one of Batman’s greatest enemies: the Penguin. Taylor is superb and transfixing in the role, down to his yellow teeth, creepy laugh and weird, freckled face.

The “Gotham” pilot seems like it’s an hour or so away from being a pretty good Batman movie. […] The biggest question for “Gotham” is whether the weekly TV series can maintain what it built up in the pilot episode. There’s a strong foundation here and “Gotham” could be a very good show if subsequent episodes can match what the pilot achieved.